


The Burning Heart

by afterandalasia



Series: Femslash Yuletide 2014 [1]
Category: Frozen (2013)
Genre: Arendelle, Elsa Has Ice Powers, F/F, Femslash Yuletide, Fire Powers, Fluff, Lesbian Elsa, Politics, Post-Frozen (2013)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-01
Updated: 2014-12-01
Packaged: 2018-02-27 17:11:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2700800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afterandalasia/pseuds/afterandalasia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elsa's trepidation about the diplomatic visit from the King of Agrabah only grows when her advisors start to make it clear exactly what sort of alliance they hope to make. At least, until they make reference to the King's <i>sister</i> who, it is said, has powers of her own.</p><p> </p><p>Written for Femslash Yuletide Day One, "By the Fire".</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Burning Heart

**Author's Note:**

> There's a few posts about and designs for Queen Noor floating around tumblr, but it looks like [this](http://adventuresofcesium.tumblr.com/post/74630744576/a-sequel-to-frozen-where-elsas-advisors-are-all) is the post that started it all off. So a thankyou to this person and to everyone else who has posted about Queen Noor on tumblr. (Matchmaker Anna, which we see a little of, comes from there as well.)
> 
> Some months ago, I also saw a tumblr post about a fire!Elsa AU in which, when her powers grew out of control, they burned away her clothes to reveal the armour she wore beneath - untouchable by fire, and the dress of the warrior queen she is. To whoever made that post: thank you, and I'm sorry that I can't say that in person.
> 
> Noor is a name meaning "light" or "radiance"; Ihab means "gift".

It is a good thing that the people of Arendelle are used to the cold. Fireplaces still have a tendency to extinguish themselves in Elsa's presence, and rooms grow more chill when her ministers displease her too much. But they are hardy folk, and more than willing to accept a little cold in exchange for a Queen who is determined to interact with her people.

 _Interaction_ is, of course, such a very vague word. It can mean visiting a hospital or a school, it can mean holding court. It can mean hosting visits from other kingdoms.

Princess Rapunzel and Prince Consort Eugene had been easy enough to interact with over the week. Queen Elinor and Princess Merida had made for a slightly more raucous visit. And then came Prince Ihab and Princess Noor, and from the moment that Elsa found out the Prince was unmarried she knew that the none-too-subtle hints from her advisors were bound to follow.

She was right.

Her Ministers went to great lengths to tell her how handsome King Ihab was, how well-spoken, how clear-sighted in his plans for his people. They impressed upon her how trade with Agrabah seemed promising, how Agrabah was a forward-looking Kingdom, and how the Prince could trace his line directly back to Sultana Yasamin and her Consort Ala ad-din. And, they added in something rather more of an undertone lest she actually hear them speak the words, he was accepting of magic, after all, with his sisters abilities.

Only at that last did Elsa actually pause, to be sure of what she had just heard.

"His sister?" she said.

"Oh yes," one of her ministers assured her. "She has... abilities with fire."

The unspoken words: _perhaps not unlike your own_.

 

 

 

It was not King Ihab for whom Elsa waited impatiently, the day that the ships were sighted. Even when she could persuade her ministers to actually speak of the princess, they seemed to know only of her magic, of how she and her brother and mother had worked for years to keep it from her father, who would never have approved. The way that she had been overwhelmed at her father's death, and lashed out, and run.

But that was not what Elsa wanted to know. She wanted to know what Princess Noor was _like_ , whether and how she had come to love her magic, how she related to her brother, whether she liked music or dancing or reading or other things altogether.

She told Anna that it was the excitement of meeting another person who had magic. But somehow, already, it only felt like half of the truth.

 

 

 

Their eyes locked across the square. Princess Noor was wearing cloth-of-gold, and even on the overcast day she was dazzling. Anna gasped, but Elsa was nothing short of entranced as the young woman stepped down from the carriage, looking confidently around herself. Her brother helped her down, and both of them strode, side-by-side, to meet Elsa and Anna.

Noor's eyes never left Elsa's. They were honey-gold, dark-lashed, and held the same secrets as her smile. Elsa felt strangely weak just from those eyes.

King Ihab greeted them in Arendellen, there having been enough communication between the two kingdoms for their languages to have been passed back and forth. Mercifully, Anna was able to do much of the talking, and exchanged pleasantries with the Prince as Elsa drowned in the Princess's eyes. She realised dimly that Noor was not speaking either.

She wondered what it would be like to hear the woman speak.

 

 

 

Noor was bold, and intelligent, and beautiful, and it made for a heady combination which enraptured Elsa so quickly that she did not even have time to realise that it was happening. She spoke about her love for her older brother and her three younger, about how when they were children she would do tricks with her fire against the backdrop of a night sky ablaze with stars. She spoke four tongues, loved to read, loved more to travel and counted herself lucky that Ihab was always more than willing to let her go with him.

Often, they would spend hours at a time in the palace gardens, or on the high balconies looking over the city, while Anna dragged both Kristoff and King Ihab around Arendelle under the pretense of showing their visitor around. Elsa knew exactly what Anna was doing - more than once, her sister had looked straight at her and given her a wicked grin before declaring to King Ihab that there was something that he absolutely _must_ see.

She just did not care.

"Your gown is beautiful," Elsa said to Noor, the first time that she saw it in full sunlight. The cloth was exquisitely woven and shimmered like molten gold as Noor walked, the soft fall of the fabric making the shadows more lustrous.

Noor smiled, but scrunched up her nose. "Thank you. I fear it is guady sometimes, but... well," she added, slightly more conspiratorially, "I've ruined a gown or two in my time. Linen burns too well."

"Gloves," said Elsa, and somehow it was explanation enough for them both to laugh. The number of pairs that she had destroyed over the years - not grown out of, but destroyed with her magic, the ice ripping them to pieces - had been all but absurd.

"When I was a child," said Noor, "I would wear normal clothes, but as I grew older I took to wearing armour beneath them. Not just for protection, but because it was the one thing that would not burn. Now I am far more in control, I rarely do, but my brother and I felt that... how do you say it? It is better to be safe than sorry?"

A phrase that Elsa knew too well. She nodded.

"And it does seem to have impressed a few of your ministers."

"Most of them were already impressed by the mere rumours of Agrabah's riches. Seeing a display of them has probably made a few quite fall in love with your fair kingdom."

That made Noor laugh again, and at the warmth and beauty of the sound Elsa decided that she wanted to hear it more often. "Well," she said, "I will certainly bear that in mind for any future diplomatic missions." Her eyes skimmed over Elsa's dress, and Elsa felt as if she was the one on fire. Noor's voice softened. "I wish that I could create as you do. Fire can protect as well as destroy, but... I fear creations such as yours are beyond me."

Her hand half-rose towards Elsa's sleeve, then fell again as she caught herself. In a burst of inspiration, Elsa raised her hands, swirling one atop the other and weaving together a square of the same delicate fabric that made up her dress. A handkerchief formed, glittering blue, with snowflake patterns all around the edge, and floated down gently to rest across her palm. She held it out to Noor. "Here. Keep it."

Noor's smile became a little more... Elsa did not want to say _heated_ , but that was the effect, as if the sun was beating down on them more strongly. "My lady's colours," she said playfully.

This time, Elsa was sure that she blushed, heat on her cheeks and all across her chest. Noor gave another of those wonderful laughs, but did not rescind her comment. "It is nothing," said Elsa, feeling as if she was fumbling for the words. "Just... a token."

She had meant to say example, and somehow the word changed itself while it was still on her tongue.

Noor ran her fingers over the fabric slowly, as if she was exploring it with her touch. Her eyes traced the way that it fell in her hand. "Alas, I have nothing to give you in return."

"Then show me," said Elsa, impulsively, breathlessly.

Noor hesitated for a moment, then smiled. She reached out and took Elsa's hand, seemingly without thinking about it, and pulled her back towards the castle again. "All right. Come on."

 

 

 

They ran through the castle hand-in-hand, grinning and giggling to each other as if they were children again, and Elsa felt as if her steps were on the air rather than on the carpet. Noor's memory must have been good, for she led them all the way up to the highest balcony again, looking out over the fjord to the mountains beyond.

She paused to fold up the handkerchief, almost reverently, her hands moving in a way that made Elsa feel oddly light-headed, then took a deep breath and raised her hands.

Fire started on her fingertips, then blossomed up into the palms of her hands. It tumbled over itself, gold and red and yellow, and Noor coaxed it up in little flurries, over and over. She glanced over to Elsa, who stood entranced, and smiled.

"It's beautiful," said Elsa.

"It's transient," Noor replied, her smile becoming just a little sadder.

She lifted her fingertips to her lips and blew across them. Fire billowed out, just curls at first, then they grew into the shape of a bird with streaming feathers of fire. It flashed gold as it flew from them into the air, soaring into the blue sky until its fire burned out and it faded away again.

For a moment longer Elsa stood, looking at where it had been, the image of the soaring bird still flickering across her mind. Noor looked at her, hope in her eyes.

"The transience makes it more beautiful," said Elsa softly.

She thought that she saw a blush rise on Noor's cheeks.

 

 

 

King Ihab was just as charming and intelligent as her ministers had told her. It was a delight to share dinners with him, to hear him talk about places that he had been, to discuss outside of the formalities of the boardroom how both their Kingdoms could benefit from an alliance and increased trade.

But she knew full well that was not what her ministers and advisors had wanted. They had wanted her to fall in love with this King, to make an alliance between their kingdoms, and most likely to make up for the fact that Anna and Kristoff were hardly a politically useful match. Elsa would always have rather seen her sister happy than _politically useful_.

She knew that she could not fall in love with Ihab. But looking at Noor made her feel like she was watching the sunrise, filled her with that still-novel sense of _hope_.

 

 

 

The first time that their hands touched, steam rose from their skin, and they both leapt apart for fear that they had hurt the other. It turned to relieved laughter when they realised that it was not the case at all, and Noor was the one to carefully slip her hand back into Elsa's once again.

In the early hours of the day, in the twilight after official business, they would meet in the gardens and make a competition and a combination of their magics: trees of ice bearing leaves of fire, fireworks of fire and ice that exploded in the air, falling snow consumed by rising flame. Even Noor admitted that, confident though she had been in the use of her magic since childhood, she had feared that she would never meet someone _like her_.

It was Noor who kissed her first. Elsa was too startled to respond, and mostly stood blinking in amazement as Noor looked at her cautiously.

"Elsa?" she said softly. For perhaps the first time, there was uncertainty in her eyes. "Did you not want..."

As a reply, Elsa kissed her back. As her eyes closed, she faintly saw flurries of fire and ice, flickering around them. But she did not care for anything more than the hands in her hands, and the lips on her lips.

 

 

 

It was not exactly what her ministers had intended when they spoke of a union between Arendelle and Agrabah. Ice sculptures lined the walls of the ballroom, interspaced with pillars of flame that burned without consuming or scorching anything.

Noor had put aside her cloth-of-gold, and wore an abaya of rich red cotton, embroidered in orange and yellow and gold, subtly shaped to flow and flutter around her. Flowing half-floral patterns curled across the fabric of her hijab, and crystal beading framed her face and threw light across her skin.

She had learnt the dances of Arendelle, and it was Elsa who felt like the novice beside her as she tried to remember the steps of the waltz that she had been taught long ago. Even after the events around her coronation, she had not seen cause to dance all that often. A perfunctory quadrille, a simple cotillion - but not a waltz, not hand-in-hand with arms around each other, gazing into each other's eyes as the music swirled around them.

"Stay," said Elsa softly.

"I'm not planning on running from your ball," replied Noor playfully.

Elsa took a nervous breath. "In Arendelle. With me."

"Oh, Elsa," Noor replied. Her hand on Elsa's waist squeezed a little tighter. "Did you think that you even had to ask?"

Relief washed over her like daybreak, and she laughed as Noor held her and looked at her with adoration. The ice around them glittered like stars, and the fire burned like the sun, and she did not even think it strange that beside the fire, she had found her place in the world.


End file.
